Review: Bob’s Burgers “Live and Let Fly”

Lookin’ to the skies to save us.

Overview (Spoilers!) 

Mr. Frond declares that the Belcher kids owe him five detentions. Rather than serve their time, the kids star in a ridiculous music video he plans to show at the upcoming Counsel Con. Frond promises the kids that no one at school will see their video, but he forgets to log out of a library computer, and soon everyone is laughing about it in the halls. The Belchers plot their revenge: they’ll secretly film Frond talking smack about his fellow conference attendees, upload it to a website, and write the URL (disguised as a cat website for guidance counselors) on a banner that a plane will fly past the conference center.

Filming Frond goes off without a hitch, but when the Belchers try to switch out an ad banner for one of their own, they’re approached by “Upskirt” Kurt Enerny—that’s right, the seaplane pilot from way back in season four. In exchange for flying their banner, Kurt asks the kids to help him with his own revenge against rival stunt pilot Devonne. She stole his idea for a stunt—the dare-devilish “dice and slice”—and so he wants to destroy her plane. Instead, the Belchers promise to help him overcome his fear of flying upside-down in order to upstage her at her own game.

In the B plot, Teddy plans to enter a paper airplane contest: at the next airshow, they’ll set up a bunch of household appliances on the runway, and whoever throws a paper airplane into the washing machine gets to keep it. Bob and Linda get a little too into it—Bob obsesses over smoothing the right folds and buying the right paper, and Linda works out her throwing arm.

At the airshow, the kids discover that Kurt and Devonne are siblings. After she yet again beats him at flying, Kurt tries to attack her in the air. The Belchers help them work through their anger with Frond’s empathy techniques. They realize in horror that they shouldn’t be plotting revenge against him, so they enlist Kurt to destroy their banner. Bob and Linda don’t win the washing machine they had their eye on, but they do score a blender.

Our Take

Wow, it’s weird to see Kurt again! After five long years, I almost forgot he existed. I certainly forgot that his name is Kurt Enerny (that’s hilarious), and it was great that the Bob’s Burgers team thought to bring back an old favorite.

So let’s break out the old comedy highlights: Gene’s assertion that the kids have “Detention Deficit Disorder.” Frond’s belief that the Belchers have heard of—and are wowed by—Counsel Con. Linda saying that Bob is a “hooker” when he throws, “like my cousin Marie.” Gene’s assertion that Frond will be “humiliated, crushed, and destroyed… like every buffet after I’m done with it.” Bob’s obsession with the book he bought about paper airplanes, and the resulting dream he has about it (“Barry B. Folden?” “Yes, I be.”). The montage of the Belcher kids training Kurt on playground equipment. The ancient pilot who doesn’t have a license and rapturously mumbles, “Oh, I’m flying” as he flies. And the whole end credits sequence, which features the Belcher family flying through the air on a paper airplane as electronic music plays.

I also love that the A and B plots are so interconnected this week. The montage of Kurt on the playground is interspersed with clips of Bob and Linda training as well, and it really brings the whole flying theme together. Even the extermination van is on-brand—this week, it reads “Flies Wide Shut,” a reference to the classic erotic Kubrick drama. (Incidentally, the burger of the week is the “Absentee Shallot” burger, a subtle reminder for all viewers to get out there and vote! Nice!).

On the other hand, this episode is insanely convoluted. Frond asks the kids to star in his video to make up for missed detentions, but then the video gets out, so the kids plot their revenge, and in order to do that, they have to help someone else get his revenge… How many layers of revenge does an episode need? This story can’t tell if it’s about Frond or about Kurt, and in a 23-minute episode, the plot needs to be a tad bit more focused.

And I know Bob’s Burgers has found success in fart jokes in the past, but Kurt admitting that, in his last competition, he pooped his pants right in front of the judges? That’s far too gross to be funny. I could do without the constant references to his huevos rancheros-induced BM, and his constant whining about it gets pretty annoying. In general, Will Forte’s shrill tones get on my nerves big time.

Plus—and I know it’s a little late to be saying this after watching nine seasons of Bob’s Burgers, but—I don’t really get what this show has against school guidance counselors. It’s one thing when Frond himself is self-centered and pathetic, but I’m not sure where the joke that all guidance counselors are nerds obsessed with cats comes from. My high school guidance counselor was pretty unhelpful, but she was a nice person. Frond is one of my least favorite reoccurring characters, because his actions are often too weird and selfish to be believable—while the 90s chic the Belchers wear for the music video is pretty funny (and the fact that Frond wears it too, even though he’s not even in the video), I have a hard time believing a teacher would force kids to film that. Plus, the Belchers mumble the words to the song (which makes sense, since they don’t want to be there), but it’s hard for me to make out what they’re saying. The first time I heard it, I was sure the lyrics went “Let’s swap eyes. Empathize!” Enunciation is key. But I do like that these empathy techniques come back to them in their hour of need on the airstrip.

All in all, this is a cute episode. It boats one of the strongest B plots this season has offered up so far, and the plane theme is pretty enjoyable. But a lack of focus—and a few too many sour jokes—means that “Live and Let Fly” isn’t one of Bob’s best.